“…people who like marshmallows in their hot chocolate and people who like whipped cream.”

I’ve decided that there’s actually another: the kind who likes BOTH!

Are you confused?  Or maybe you’re just thirsty now.  Let me explain. 🙂

Of course you already know about how much I LOVE read-aloud, and how it’s such a big deal in our classroom.  I tell you all the time.  But I’m going to tell you again, because yesterday we had another great read-aloud experience together.

We’ve been reading Who’s Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas by Martha Freeman.  I’ve been a fan of hers for a while, and this is actually the second of her books that we’ve read this year (in October we read Who Stole Halloween?)

So there’s a part in the story where the characters (who are trying to figure out who’s been stealing the birds from their neighborhood’s holiday yard displays) are chatting with old Mr. Stone.  He is making cocoa for them, and starts to tell them about how “there are two kinds of people in the world: people who like marshmallows in their hot chocolate and people who like whipped cream.”  What else could we do but see which one of those people we were?

I conveniently got some hot chocolate for my birthday (thanks, Archie!), so we were already a step ahead.  Then I made sure to bring the rest of the fixins’ with me that morning:

For most of the morning, the cocoa warmed in the big ‘ole Crock Pot as we waited for read-aloud after lunch.

When my kids came back from recess (on a rather chilly day), this is what they saw:

I had already gotten marshmallows ready in half of the class, because I guess I figured that there would be an equal amount people who wanted each kind of topping.  Just for the record, I believe our class was 9 Team Marshmallow and 16 Team Whipped Cream.  Oh, and then there was me–I can never decide, so I took both. 🙂

Then we sat down to read.

Ok, so I know there are some of you who are yelling at me about how this isn’t really related to read-aloud as a teaching time, which I am always making such a big deal about.  But I disagree.  No, the lesson today wasn’t about word choice, fluency or inferences, but there was learning happening.  We were learning about each other, and we were sharing an experience.  We were building our community and having fun while we were doing something we’d normally do anyway.  We were loving a story and making a connection with the characters in the book.  And in some ways, I think those lessons can be even more important than just the reading parts.  We’re enjoying a good book together and enjoying each other, too.